Reef

I just finished reading the article ''The Killing of America's Great Reef'' (Nov. 13, by Mike Thomas), and I feel it made one point perfectly clear. Mankind is one selfish and destructive force.When I read stories on how shabbily we have treated the gift of nature God has given us, I am ashamed to be part of the human race.Toni SchroederAltoona

VERO BEACH - Juniors Samantha Worrell and Megan Woodson moved Hagerty one step from the school's first softball state championship. Worrell pitched no-hit ball over the game's final six innings Wednesday, and Woodson had three hits and scored twice in the Huskies' 5-1 victory against Miami Coral Reef in a Class 8A state semifinal at Historic Dodgertown. Worrell allowed three hits in the first inning as Coral Reef (22-9) scratched out its lone run, but the right-hander settled down and yielded one baserunner over the final six frames, a pitch that hit Sarah Ortiz to open the fourth.

BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK -- We nicknamed them "baby corals," several dozen pieces of boulder coral growing in neat rows under a dock on Biscayne Bay. Some are no bigger than a fist. A few larger pieces had broken off a reef. But someday they could grow into a huge reef and be homes for fish and marine critters. They are the insurance against the crisis predicted by Florida reef experts. The nursery under the dock was a key stop on a recent boat trip to the national park. The park's treasure is the expanse of 4,000 coral patch reefs, home to fish, lobsters and other marine critters.

Megan Woodson's RBI single to right field in the fifth inning scored Kiley Dechau from second base, and Samantha Worrell pitched a six-hitter to lead host Hagerty (27-4) past Apopka (22-6) 1-0 in a Class 8A region softball final Sunday. The Huskies, ranked No. 1 in 8A, advanced to the state semifinals for the first time and will face Coral Reef on Wednesday in Vero Beach. "I'm very proud of our team," said Hagerty's third-year coach, David Stone. "Their hard work paid off. We've had to win several one-run or come-from-behind games to get to state.

Intent on helping restore the world's rapidly declining reefs, Alison Moulding is growing baby coral in her South Florida laboratory. Under a full moon when corals tend to spawn, she and fellow researchers collected eggs and sperm from a reef off the Broward County coast last year and turned them into larva back in the lab. She hopes these babies grow big and strong enough to return to their home and help expand the reef. "Mother Nature does it best," Moulding said. "We can help her along a little bit. But for the system to be fully healthy, we have to reduce the stresses on coral that are damaging the reefs."

TEQUESTA -- An artificial reef created earlier this summer has attracted territorial bull sharks for the past month, forcing lifeguards to close the beaches almost daily. Lifeguards have raised the red flag and called swimmers out of the water for anywhere from 30 minutes to all day since the limestone-boulder reef began luring numerous fish just south of Coral Cove Park. "These sharks are territorial," said Rick Moore, 49, a 13-year lifeguard at the park. "What's happened is you have an accumulation of tropical fish."

OCEANOGRAPHERS AT Biscayne National Park are trying a new approach to coral reef repair: transplants. Last December an errant freighter ran aground on top of a reef off the Miami coast. The Honduran ship carved a 100-foot-by- 60-foot channel, pulverizing the skeletons of the tiny marine animals and everything else in its path. The rebuilding plan calls for taking larger pieces of coral that are still alive, standing them upright and cementing them into place. Live coral from other sites also will be transplanted to the broken reef.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Park rangers Wednesday charged a ferry-boat captain with running a passenger boat aground on a coral reef in the Virgin Islands National Park. Renel Chalwell of St. Thomas, who works for Native Son Inc., also was charged with endangering the lives of his 33 passengers last month. As a heavy squall passed through the islands, the ferry ran aground on Johnson's Reef, less than 1 mile north of St. John. The ferry caused extensive damage to the reef system, which is covered by just 4 feet of water.

VOLUSIA COUNTY Should Volusia get an artificial surfing reef? A proposal to build such a reef sank in Cocoa Beach, but coastal engineer John Hearin, of ASR Marine Consulting and Research, found a receptive audience at a recent beach-policy advisory board meeting. Hearin, a former aerospace engineer who grew up in Port Orange, explained that the reef mimics the natural coral reef system off the Pacific island of Fiji. Artificial reefs have been built in Australia and New Zealand. The reefs offer several benefits.

Q. What happened to the South Florida reef damaged by a U.S. Navy vessel?A. Florida wants the Navy to pay for the damage caused when a nuclear-powered submarine plowed into a reef estimated to be between 3,000 and 10,000 years old.The cost of the environmental damage caused by the USS Memphis to the reef off Hollywood has yet to be determined. The attack sub struck the coral reef in 24 feet of water a mile offshore while preparing to conduct tests with the Naval Warfare Center in Port Everglades.

One of Florida's great treasures, the Keys, is as fragile an environment as it is beautiful. Inspired in the biblical Ten Commandments, the Florida Keys' tourism council recently unveiled "10 Keysmandments" for responsible travel designed to guide visitors as to what they can do when at the Florida Keys to enjoy their vacations while helping preserve the Keys' environment. If you are not planning a trip to the Florida Keys, the "Keysmandments" are suitable for eco-conscious travelers to other destinations as well.

On shallow Pickles Reef, 3 1 / 2miles off the shore of Key Largo, the sun lit up a mishmash of metal, iron and barrel-shaped cement artifacts that have been commingling with colorful coral and tropical fish for a century or more. As two curious spotted eagle rays cruised by, a group of divers from the Washington-based Maritime Archaeological and Historical Society surveyed the unidentified wreckage that hurricanes, tropical storms and strong currents have scattered over a site larger than a football field.

Photographer Andreas Franke of Austria recently led a team to the 165-foot World War II warship USS Mohawk CGC, now a living reef thriving 28 nautical miles off the west coat of Florida. On the trip, Franke created an underwater art gallery there by installing 12 photos on the shipwreck. For his photos, he envisioned the life of sailors from the past aboard the Mohawk. He superimposed images of models in period clothing onto original photography of the wreck. During the their time at sea, the photos encased in steel-framed Plexiglass will evolve with accumulation of marine life.

Discovery Cove introduced its new Grand Reef to the public on Friday. The new area allows guests to the SeaWorld Orlando resort to snorkel among thousands of fish from around the world and have a close (if glass-enclosed) encounter with sharks. Stewart Clark, vice president of Discovery Cove, said research and planning for Grand Reef had included gathering the opinions of former (and potential) Discovery Cove guests as well as staff members. One result was making the area multi-level, so that even non-swimming folks and people who stay in shallow water could see the sharks, he said.

KISSIMMEE - Winter Park was too big, too powerful and too good Tuesday night. The Wildcats (26-5) cruised to a 3-0 victory (25-19, 25-10, 25-18) against Miami Coral Reef (25-6) in the girls volleyball Class 8A semifinals at Silver Spurs Arena, clinching a berth in Wednesday's championship match. After a slow start – Winter Park trailed 18-17 at one point in the first game – the Wildcats woke up. Led by the towering frontline tandem of junior Christina Ambrose (6-foot-3)

WESTON — Carter Jacobs' late fourth-quarter interception and a Sony Michel rushing touchdown in his first game in a year sealed a shorthanded American Heritage win over Coral Reef 25-17 in the first game of the South Florida High School Sports kickoff double-header Friday night at Cypress Bay. Heritage quarterback Tyler Cogswell, with the help of wide receiver Tyler Carmona, drove 79 yards to score the go-ahead touchdown for the Patriots late...

CRUZ BAY, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Top leaders in the U.S. Virgin Islands are challenging the federal government's creation of a coral-reef preserve off their shores, seeking a legal opinion on whether Washington intruded into the U.S. territory's jurisdiction. The U.S. General Accounting Office is expected to issue an opinion this week on whether the U.S. or Virgin Islands' government owns the underwater areas, which are home to some of the healthiest reefs in the region.

I'd like to thank the writer of ''The Killing of America's Great Reef'' (Nov. 13, by Mike Thomas).I was shocked but not surprised to hear what is happening to our reefs. It's a shame people don't care about some of the world's most beautiful things. What's really stupid about it is the fact that most people don't think about the hypothetical side of things until it's too late.What if the reef does completely die, and the fish go with it, what will divers be able to look at besides sand?To me, a reef has more beauty to it than the sky has clouds.

As chief of Miami-Dade County's artificial reef program from 1981 to 1996, Ben Mostkoff knows the locations of many of the sunken boats, radio antennae, pipes and limerock boulders deployed along the coast. But that doesn't make the Miami Beach resident a successful angler. "I have the tackle, the boat and the basic techniques, but I've had so many trips when the only thing I could depend upon was being disappointed," Mostkoff said. "I need an intensive crash course to hone my skills and be more successful.

MIAMI It was a scene unlike any ever seen in a major league stadium. Considering the participants, it was downright bizarre. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria stood behind the backstop screen pointing a radar gun toward the field, while first baseman Gaby Sanchez chucked baseballs against the bulletproof polycarbonate shielding the two aquariums in the wall behind home plate. Team President David Samson and the boss of the aquarium builder also took turns pelting the tanks.